Wendy's CEO: Here Is What Our Future Looks Like

Wendy's (WEN) has served up some meaty sales and profit gains under CEO Todd Penegor.

Since taking the helm as CEO of Wendy's in May 2016, Penegor has led an aggressive push to remodel restaurants and enhance the burger and frosty chain's food quality. More recently, Wendy's has made a foray into mobile ordering as it gets ready to do battle with McDonald's (MCD) to get people fast-food on the go.

Wendy's global system-wide sales growth weighed in at 3.7% for the nine-months ended Oct. 1, 2017, quicker than the 3% pace a year earlier. Adjusted operating profit margins surged to 33.1% from 26.7% a year ago. Shareholders have been rewarded accordingly under Penegor's watch: a juicy 54% gain.

Penegor tells TheStreet he and his team at Wendy's are far from resting on their laurels. Hot on their plates this year are efforts to take mobile ordering to 2,500 locations (up from 1,400 currently) and expand delivery via a new partnership with DoorDash.

"The real winners [in the restaurant business] will be the ones with high integrity around their food and get it to you in 30 minutes or less at an affordable price," Penegor says.

At least in the eyes of the stock market, Wendy's will be one of those winners.